Should The Bahamas rethink the educational agreement with Cuba?

Should The Bahamas rethink the educational agreement with Cuba?
By Rick Lowe, Nassau Institute
Jul 5, 2010 - 9:03:59 AM

The Bahamas signing an educational agreement with Cuba as reported in
the press recently seems innocuous enough, particularly with the
travails of the public educational system. But let's dig a little deeper.

Unless things have changed dramatically in Cuba in recent years, no
Cuban citizen can sign a contract with an employer. All employees work
for the Communist State and are in essence "farmed out" to employers
around the world and within Cuban territory.

Should an employer have a problem with an employee, the worker is
shipped back to the Government of Cuba. They have none of the legal
options for employment that Bahamians enjoy and deserve as free people.

Back in 2003 it was reported ( http://bit.ly/bw3ig5 ) that Cuba's
Foreign Minister told the Bahamian business community that, "some
business people like doing business in Cuba, because the government
hire's the employee's and if the company wants to downsize, they simply
send them back to the government office…no strings attached.
Furthermore, the system has the employer pay the government the wages
who in turn pays less to the worker. It has been reported that take home
pay is $5 per month for a labourer and $12 per month for an accountant."

He went on to say that "neither individuals nor businesses can own
property..."

The Foreign Minister also "insinuated, that if Bahamians wanted to
invest in Cuba they would have to adapt to the "Cuban way." The only
thing missing was the Defense Committee for the Revolution guards to
emphasise that point."

However, according to the Preamble to The Bahamas Constitution, this
nation was founded with a belief in the "Fundamental Rights and Freedoms
of the Individual ... in which no Man, Woman or Child shall ever be
Slave or Bondsman to anyone or their Labour exploited..."

So, on one hand The Bahamas Government must improve the educational
system for the future of the country, but in order to do so they surely
must be duty bound to operate within the confines of The Bahamas
Constitution and Bahamian Statute Law.

Hiring Cubans to help improve the educational system is perfectly
acceptable, but if they are Slave to the Cuban Bondsman Regime, that
goes against everything The Bahamas was founded on.

http://www.thebahamasweekly.com/publish/letter-to-the-editor/Should_The_Bahamas_rethink_the_educational_agreement_with_Cuba11528.shtml